Floor Leader
Mühl playing up to new expectations as Huskies’ point guard
STORRS — Nika Mühl filled in for Paige Bueckers as the UConn women’s basketball team’s starting point guard for 19 games last season.
This year, however, Mühl will be taking on the role for the whole season. And already in UConn’s first two games of the year, the junior has shown she’s matured and is ready for the challenge.
“Nika’s made a lot of progress, right?” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “She’s matured a lot. She’s grown up a lot. She’s taking things to heart. You know, even more so than she did when she already did. She’s taking more responsibility for everything, which is great.”
Mühl opened the year with 11 assists, eight rebounds, five steals, two blocks and seven points in 30 minutes in UConn’s exhibition against Kutztown. While her stats in the game don’t count toward her official career stats
because of the game’s exhibition status, that would have tied both her career highs in blocks and rebounds and would have been her first double-figure assist game.
In UConn’s regular season opener against Northeastern four days later, Mühl finished with a gamehigh seven assists and tied her career-high of six steals (also a game-high) in 26 and a half minutes.
“Nika plays the game a certain way and she sets everything on fire,” Auriemma said after UConn’s exhibition. “Like she’s that kind of player and the ball’s gonna be flying all over the place. I would think with the shooters and scorers that we have, a big assist night for her should be a common occurrence.”
On Monday, in UConn’s 83-76 win over Texas, Mühl again led all players in assists, tying her careerhigh with nine on top of three steals and six points in 37 minutes. It was her 3-pointer at 5:57 in the third quarter that gave UConn its first double-digit lead of the game.
However, Mühl’s impact goes far beyond the stat sheet. The 5-foot-10 point guard continually sets the tone for the Huskies’ defense.
She’s in opponents’ faces, putting pressure on them
with every step and poking out every loose ball.
In the first quarter against the Longhorns, Mühl was the only Husky defending Texas’ inbound pass. The second Texas’ Amina Muhammad passed the ball, Mühl pounced. She dove onto the floor to intercept the pass and grab the ball. Once she had it, she passed to Azzi Fudd who standing underneath the basket ready for the layup. UConn got its first lead of the game because of that play.
“Other than Azzi, there’s probably more pressure on Nika this year from us than any other player on our team,” Auriemma said. “Those are two players that we can’t replace. I wouldn’t trade her (Nika). I wouldn’t trade her for anybody today”
Mühl, the reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Year, has also become the Huskies’ most vocal leader. She’s the loudest at practices and in games and she’s the first to congratulate a teammate after a big play. After knocking off Texas, she told Fudd she was proud of her immediately following the win.
While Fudd is now the face of UConn’s offense, Mühl has become its director.
She’s shown growth and maturity over the preseason, knowing her role is vital to the Huskies’ season without Bueckers. Currently, Mühl is tied for eighth nationally with 8.0 assists per game and tied for 14th with 4.5 steals per game.
However, just because she’s growing up doesn’t mean she’ll stop being her overly aggressive and physical self.
“We got it like what a 12-point lead or whatever, and she just couldn’t help herself because it had been like maybe 10-15 minutes before she had punched anybody. So, she had to run up and whack a kid, you know, set illegal screen just for the hell of it because she just felt like she needed that,” Auriemma joked. “I don’t know what it is, but she’s come a long way she used to do four or five of those a game. She only did one today.”